This is the way you will set up your blog for my art courses. You will use WordPress for your site and select Coraline as your template. It is imperative that you follow this format.
- Go to wordpress.com and open a free account.
- Title your blog something like Joe’s/Josephine’s Honors Art (or Portfolio, or Honors & Portfolio) Class.
- Go to My Dashboard. This is where almost all of your posts will begin and it is where you will manage your blog.
- Go to Appearance (toward the bottom on the left sidebar) under Manage Themes locate Coraline by Automatic and select it as your template.
- Go to Settings: General (bottom of left-hand sidebar). In the Blog Title box type something like Joe’s Honors Art Class (Joe’s Portfolio Class or Joe’s's Honors & Portfolio Art Class). Use only your first name. In the Tagline box type Fall 2010.
- Type your email address in the E-mail address box. If you don’t have one you can easily set up a free email account at Google, gmail.
- Under Timezone select UTC-5 from the drop down menu.
- You may add a Blog Picture/Icon in the box on the right. Follow the instructions. Note: You will not see your icon posted immediately so be patient.
- Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.
- Under Appearance select Widgets. In this order drag Calendar, Archives, and Categories to the Primary Widget Area on the right side of the page.
- Don’t type anything under Calendar or Archives.
- Under the Categories widget type Courses in the title box. Don’t check any boxes. Click Save.
- Go to Categories under Posts on the left-hand sidebar. Under Add Category type Honors Art or Portfolio Art. Leave the Category Parent as None. Don’t type anything in the Description box. Click the Add Category button on the bottom of the page to save. Note: If you are in both Honors and Portfolio you will need to do this twice – once for each course title. Your category should show up in blue on the upper right-hand area of this page. If you have a default category box listed as 1 you can check the box and delete it.
- Time to enter your first Post. Go to Add New under Posts near the top of the left-hand sidebar. Type something like Welcome in the box at the top. Type something like “this will be a most awesome blog” in the textbox. At the bottom of this page you will see two boxes under Discussion. Make sure the Allow comments and Allow trackbacks and pings boxes are not checked. (I do not want anybody to be able to post comments on our blogs at this time.) The same applies to the two boxes at the bottom of the page under Likes and Shares – leave them unchecked. Check the category box on the right sidebar under Categories that applies to you. If you are in both Honors & Portfolio you need to check those two boxes. Click on Publish. You will need to go through this process each time you post an entry on your blog.
- Next we will set up our Pages. Select Add New under the Pages heading in the left sidebar. Type Artist Statement in the top text box. Your statement will be posted on this page. Under Attributes (in the right side bar) type 2 in the Order box (don’t change anything else). Uncheck Allow Comments and Allow trackbacks and pings (under Discussion). Click the blue Publish button.
- Honors students follow this procedure for the following 4 page titles: Art Work (type 3 in the order box), Sketchbook (type 4 in the order box), Writing (type 5 in the order box), and Community Connections (type 6 in the order box). Note: it is imperative that you follow this order.
- Portfolio students will follow the above procedure, but your pages will be: Artist Statement (type 2 in the order box), Art Work (type 3 in the order box), Sketchbook (type 4 in the order box), Proposals (type 5 in the order box), Community Connections (type 6 in the order box), Progress Reports (type 7 in the order box), and Self-Assessments (type 8 in the order box).
- Students in both courses will set their blogs following the Honors page order. You will then add three more pages: Proposals (type 7 in the order box), Progress Reports (type 8 in the order box), and Self-Assessments (type 9 in the order box).
- Note: The first page will be a default page titled Front Page. You don’t need to do anything. It will take care of itself. That is why I have your pages begin as 2 in the order boxes.
- To add your own Header Image you will go to Appearance (leftside bar) then go to Custom Header and follow the instructions.
- When you wish to copy and paste from a Microsoft Word document you will need to go to the little W (looks like it is on a yellow clipboard) found int the second row of the editing tools.
- When you wish to add links to your blog entries you will highlight the word or image and then click the link icon in the editing toolbar. A box will appear titled Insert/edit link. Paste your desired link into the Link URL box. Under Target select Open link in a new window (important to do this). Give it a Title and leave Class the way it is. Click Insert and voila!
- Always remember to click update post when making edits and remember to click Publish for new posts. Also be sure to uncheck the leave comments box whenever it appears.
- This blog is to be dedicated to my art classes and you are expected to follow the WSD Acceptable Use Policy.
